Learning from the Field: SEAOHUN's Lao Student Team Visits WWF-Laos to Learn about Wildlife-Borne Disease

A One Health courtesy visit to WWF-Laos office, provided an opportunity to share some information with the VaRaHa Youth Heroes team practical, community-tested guidance for their zoonotic disease and wildlife conservation project — and a renewed appreciation for what teamwork can achieve.

In Lao PDR, the risks of zoonotic disease and wildlife trade rarely stay confined to one field of study. They sit at the intersection of environment, animals, and people — which is exactly why the student team behind VaRaHa Youth Heroes: Zoonotic Prevention & Wildlife Conservation Initiative, one of nine winning teams in the 2026 SEAOHUN One Health Campus-to-Community (OH-C2C) Challenge, chose to learn directly from an organisation already working on the ground.

On Wednesday, 24 June 2026, the team visited WWF-Laos office in Vientiane capital, Laos to learn about WWF-Laos’ work on wildlife-related zoonotic disease prevention, particularly through the wildlife conservation projects . WWF-Laos representatives warmly welcomed the students, sharing some insights from years of working with local communities on conservation and biosecurity issues. They discussed with the team the experiences of working with local communities, coordinating with the government partners, implementing wildlife campaigns. They also highlighted key challenges faced in the field, including public perception of wildlife consumption, the actions needed to strengthen wildlife conservation, and how these effort contribute to the preventing future zoonotic disease outbreaks.

“Working as a team is much better than working alone — we could connect and collaborate across different fields, just like the One Health concept itself.” — VaRaHa Youth Heroes team, Lao PDR

Turning Insight into a Sharper Action Plan

The visit reshaped how the team plans to approach its own community engagement. Drawing on WWF-Laos' initial guidance, the students are refining their pre- and post-assessment strategy to better understand why community members hunt or consume wildlife, their level of awareness of the associated health risks, and how their workshop content can be adapted to reflect what they learn. That anticipatory planning — building the ability to assess the potential obstacles before they arise was one of the visit's most valuable takeaways.

For the students, the experience underscored a lesson at the heart of One Health itself: complex problems at the human–animal–environment interface cannot be addressed by a single discipline alone. The VaRaHa Youth Heroes team brings together students from environmental science, veterinary medicine, and human health, and their exchange with WWF-Laos further highlighted the value of cross-disciplinary collaboration in strengthening their project and broadening it perspective.

The team left the WWF office inspired, more confident, and better prepared to bring their work to communities near the Phou Khao Khouay National Protected Area. SEAOHUN thanks WWF-Laos for generously sharing its time, expertise, and field experience in support of this exchange — a partnership that reflects the collaborative, cross-sector spirit the OH-C2C Challenge was designed to cultivate.

ABOUT THE PROJECT

VaRaHa Youth Heroes is led by student teams from the National University of Laos and the University of Health Sciences, working with the Social Environmental Education and Development (SEED) group. The project is one of nine winning teams in the 2026 SEAOHUN One Health Campus-to-Community (OH-C2C) Challenge, a regional student competition supported by Chevron, running from June to October 2026 with a regional showcase planned for November 2026.